In this deeply moving episode, Dr. Gabrielle Lyon sits down with best-selling author, meditation teacher, and hospice volunteer Elena Brower for a profound conversation on impermanence, intentional living, and our relationship with death. Rather than approaching death with fear or avoidance, Elena shares how acknowledging life’s impermanence can become a powerful practice for living with clarity, gratitude, and purpose.

Drawing from her personal journey—including the loss of her mother and her work in hospice and Buddhist chaplaincy—Elena offers insight into how end-of-life awareness transforms the way we show up for ourselves and others. Together, they discuss cultural discomfort around death, the importance of ritual and presence, how to talk to children about mortality, and what to say to someone who is afraid of dying.

This episode is an invitation to shift perspective: to let go of what no longer serves, cultivate deeper relationships, and live more fully by honoring the finite nature of life.